Welcome back! Our next module focuses on the seeker. Who are the seekers you will be talking with? Who are they on the inside? What do they want from spiritual guidance? Why did they come in the first place? All of these questions tie in to a much bigger spiritual guidance question: How do we make meaning of our lives? Download and print out the Module 2 requirements here: http://www.awakenedliving.com/SGTI/module2.pdf Our Group Conversation AreaOnce you leave a comment or question, be sure to put a check mark in the box that says you wish to be notified of responses. When someone comments on the module, you will receive notification of their response in your e-mail inbox. We will be checking in regularly to address comments. Please try to post module-based questions here, rather than sending us a separate e-mail. It will be easier to keep Q & A in one place, so everyone benefits. Of course, if you have a question of a more personal nature, please e-mail us. We hope you will check in once each week to let us know how you are doing and to connect with your classmates. Let the conversation begin! We welcome your thoughts and look forward to chatting it up with you! Note: Please do not use the Social Media icons below. Unfortunately, they are built into the page and can't be deactivated. We want to keep this course material, as well as your personal responses, private. Thank you. J & J
16 Comments
Jan
9/10/2017 10:17:10 pm
We look forward to our conversation with you about Module 2. Enjoy the journey!
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Rebecca
9/17/2017 01:26:52 pm
1.
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Rebecca
9/17/2017 01:59:12 pm
As an addendum, I am reflecting on the interview with Rabbi Howard and I am struck by the importance of having a spiritual practice before guiding others. I am concerned by my own lack of consistency in this area, as well as a desire to know more and not wanting practices that are a mile wide and and inch deep. I think it's easy to be impatient as I determine and deepen my own practices.
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Jeanette
9/18/2017 08:58:14 am
Thank you for these comments, Becky! Regarding your comment about seeking seekers, it is absolutely okay for you to do that. This is what all emerging spiritual guides do as they go through training (and even beyond training). You have a new role and you get to invite others in relationship to you as a guide.
Jan
9/18/2017 06:15:17 pm
I appreciate this addendum. Howard really pressed this point with us and I completely agree. If we are not real and avid and passionate practitioners, how can we hope anyone else will be? Your transparency about lack of consistency is good. Thank you. I bet each of us can relate! A deepening practice (rather than wide) helps us to put down roots; to listen more deeply, both to ourselves and others. This is very simply how spiritual practices work. They change the brain to be more alert and aware, clear, and open ... And our "practice' is our life line, if you will, to the truest parts of ourselves and to the Divine as we understand it. So if any of us fail to develop some type of contemplative practice we are only cheating ourselves of a grand experience and the most meaningful connection of all.
Peter
9/20/2017 04:57:09 pm
My thoughts/reaction to Janet Ruffing's video on SDI:
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Peter
9/20/2017 05:02:45 pm
Sorry...it was accidentally submitted before I finished.
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Jan
9/21/2017 10:03:16 pm
Peter, I appreciate your thoughts here. Very perceptive. And exactly the reason that we must ensure our language around spiritual guidance is completely inclusive. We would not want anyone to feel excluded! Even the use of the word "God" will not work for some. We must continue to dedicate ourselves to finding language that as many people as possible can relate to .... so that when we say, "All are welcome here," we really mean it.
Jeffrey Phillips
9/22/2017 05:12:30 pm
Sorry for getting to the RQs late this module; these two weeks have flown by!
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Jan
9/23/2017 08:44:20 am
Jeffrey, I (personally) greatly appreciated how you took the time to reflect on these important elements because it helps me better understand where you actually "are" inside of yourself when it comes to these important concepts and issues. Your thoughtful and precise responses could have actually served as your RE this week as they were so well put together. I agree with so much of what you said and take to heart your suggestions about the areas of learning we need to emphasize in SG training. We will, I assure you! And I know that Jeanette and I will likely call upon you to share what you know and developed about ethics for clergy. Wonderful! I also appreciated in your sharing here how you sough to mine nuggets of meaning from each contributor in this module. We do carefully select what goes into each module for a specific perceptual or skill-building purpose. It seems you are picking up on this. :-) Thank you!
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/22/2017 05:55:42 pm
RQ 2. I think our seekers will be all kinds of people with all kinds of needs and desires and backgrounds (and expectations for receiving spiritual guidance). That means they are both not like us AND like us. We all have questions and desires. They (we) desire meaning, belonging, true human friendship, and connection with something bigger. We want vulnerability - ultimate giving and receiving. "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee" (Augustine). Human beings, I believe, are incurably religious (or "spiritual"), and will always seek the deeper, more profound beauty and joy that beats at the center of the universe. And they (we) will have all kinds of different ways of expressing this longing - some articulate and some casual, some informed (and misinformed) by religious tradition(s), others informed by daily life and popular culture, and some not very informed at all!
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Jan
9/23/2017 08:46:32 am
Very insightful, Jeffrey, about who the seeker is. I am glad to know you open to the may ways you might enter into meaningful conversation with others. And you never know, cocktail parties may serve as seed planting opportunities ... Just being real and open allows others to do the same.
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Jan
9/23/2017 08:52:34 am
Hello All,
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Barbara
9/23/2017 12:34:46 pm
Just want to say hello. These two weeks at flying by for me toand hopefully I will have some comments by the end of the day tomorrow mostly my time is been taken up with surgery and recovering from surgery. I am doing extremely well but my brain is not at 100%. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes
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Jan
9/24/2017 08:34:52 am
Hello Barbara,
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Barbara
9/24/2017 11:55:33 pm
I am so appreciative of the comments you all have made on this module, and I can relate to many of them. I am curious to discover more about holy listening within myself. A work in progress.
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Only when I'm in possession of my own heart can I be present for another in a healing, encouraging, empowering way. Then I have a gift to offer, the best gift I possess — the gift of a self that is whole, that stands in the world on its own two feet.
~ Parker J. Palmer |